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Articles

Mapping popular music heritage in Slovenia

Pages 281-296 | Received 29 Jun 2012, Accepted 13 Aug 2012, Published online: 29 Nov 2012
 

Abstract

The aim of the article is to map Slovenian popular music heritage (PMH) and to critically assess the prospects of its future development. The article supplements the constructionist perspective on heritage with the Foucauldian concept of regime(s) of truth, which enables a better understanding of the complex processes of the social construction of heritage and the power struggles related to it. It then uses this framework to critically examine the current situation of PMH in Slovenia with the emphasis on the tensions between different PMH practices, discourses and the producers of heritage.

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported as part of the Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory and Cultural Identity (POPID) project by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA, DASTI, ETF, FNR, FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS, MHEST, NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities programme.

Notes

1. The record company run by RTVSLO, the ZKP RTVSLO, occasionally produces re-releases of certain albums from its historical collection of Slovenian popular music. Some re-releases are also occasionally produced by commercial record companies such as Nika, Dallas and Sanje. Several interviewees pointed out, however, that in their view none of the Slovenian record companies (especially the national ZKP RTVSLO) is sufficiently active in this role.

2. The only exception in this sense is SIGIC, which, however, is first and foremost of a promotion oriented organisation.

3. The only exception in this sense is perhaps Slovenian Folk–Pop music, a unique mix of polka, waltz and Slovenian traditional folk music, which is probably the most commercially successful Slovenian popular music genre both at home and abroad.

4. It is worth noting that the Subcultural asylum is the only PMH producer that explicitly acknowledges a certain overlap between Slovenian and Yugoslav PMH.

5. For younger generations that have openly embraced the Internet as the source for popular music these local experts are becoming less important.

6. Music blogs such as YUkebox, which represents an online depository of rare singles and extended play records of the Yugoslav scene, could also be considered as DIY expressions of PMH.

7. Inferring from the British case (see Cohen and Roberts, this volume) there are reasons to believe that the un-official producers of PMH would become more reluctant to use the term heritage if popular music was to be officially authorised as heritage.

8. An obstacle in this regard could be that according to the guidelines used by the Slovenian coordinator for intangible heritage only cases with the tradition of at least 50 years are considered for official registration.

9. This struggle has to be understood in a wider context of challenging the privileged position of classical and traditional-folk music and affirming the importance of Slovenian popular music.

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